Next!

Our present big project is redecorating & recarpeting the hall, stairs and landing. We have already ripped up the old carpet and underlay, and what a job that was! it was all so old the black rubber underlay (which obviously dated from the 70's) had in large part turned to dust and what hadn't was stuck to the floors and stairs! After getting all that cleared up and thrown out Ian has got on sanding down the door frames and skirtings (fortunately because we have replaced all the doors they only need painting!) and has now nearly finished the painting.

We have chosen a nice pale coloured wallpaper with a terracotta (more flame orange actually) motif to go with the carpets we are getting once all the decorating is finished. These will match the colour we have in all the main bedrooms so the floors wil be thesame throughout. After reviewing the situation a couple of weeks ago we made the decision there was no way we could do the wallpapering ourselves due to the high ceilings above the stairs and long drops required, so we have found a man to do it for us. I wanted him to just stick it up over the existing woodchip, seeing no problem in this method :-), but he has insisted on stripping the woodchip and then wallpapering. I foresee problems ahead because I dont think the condition of the walls is that good and I think this is going to cause more harm than good and turn into another expensive repair job! (like most things we have attempted in this house!). Anyway he starts next month after we get back from our trip to Ireland so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Talking of our trip to Ireland, we are off to County Cork, in the South West, taking the overnight ferry from Swansea to Cork and then driving west to Schull (pronounced Skull). We wanted to stay in the Skibbereen area as that's where my paternal family originated, but couldn't find any rental houses that would accept two dogs. We finally found a brand new detached house (which sleeps eight!) in Schull, a very pretty fishing village not far from Skibbereen. We are off in a couple of weeks and I can't wait.